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Not to steal a line from poker Hall of Famer Todd Brunson, but and we’re off … in the $3,500 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Rolling Thunder event in Northern California.

Action kicked off at 11 a.m. local time in Lincoln, California at the Thunder Valley Casino Resort, one of the top poker rooms in the United States. When play began, 160 had already registered, and many others have since joined the party, but there’s a shot the annual event could surpass its previous record of 590 entrants, set last year.

Longtime Poker Player Seeks Career Defining Cash

One of the players seated on Day 1 is Gail Levine, one of two ClubWPT qualifiers who won a seat into the tournament (Craig Parsons from New York is the other). Levine, who spoke with PokerNews on the first break, really wants her table to believe she’s a clueless fish. But don’t be fooled, the 72-year-old who resides in Los Angeles knows how to play.

Levine began playing on ClubWPT in 2020 during the pandemic, but she’s an experienced tournament player. From 2008-2020, she recorded 91 cashes on The Hendon Mob for a total of more than $105,000, including 11 wins. But she hasn’t played a live tournament since COVID-19 struck.

“I have 10 grandchildren and I didn’t want to get COVID,” she said of why she’s been exclusively playing online the past few years. “And my children all had a bunch of kids and they all needed help.”

When we caught up with the ClubWPT qualifier on the first Day 1 break, she was sitting on around 100 big blinds, but said she “wanted more” and is being patient waiting to build up her stack, something she has done numerous times in her poker career.

Levine previously lived in Las Vegas for 11 years, and her main spot for poker was Wynn where she played the low stakes daily tournament regularly. But she’s hoping her opponents will underestimate her.

“Let them think I don’t know what I’m doing,” Levine said. “Well, you know, guys like to think that women don’t know what they’re doing.”

“No offense, guys,” she finished up with a laugh.

If Levine’s stack continues to grow, she won’t be able to continue fooling her opponents into thinking she’s an inexperienced player.

WPT Rolling Thunder Championship Off and Running

At the time of publishing, over 270 players had registered, and registration will remain open until the start of Day 2 (Sunday). There are a number of big name pros in action, including Scott Eskenazi, the defending champion who won it last year for $361,600.

Other familiar faces taking a shot becoming a WPT Champions Club member (or winning another WPT title) include Jeff Platt, Frank Stepuchin, Ryan Riess, Andrew Moreno, David Peters, Allen Kessler, and WPT Season 18 Player of the Year Brian Altman.

Day 1 is scheduled to play eight 60-minute levels, followed by 10 more levels on Day 2 (Sunday). It will be tough to surpass the 590-entrant record for the WPT Rolling Thunder Championship set last year. But no doubt the field will be large either way.

*Images courtesy of WPT/Drew Amato.

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